Employee Guidelines For Social Media

[Rick Buffkin]

I was just curious if any of you guys are implementing any guidelines / rules to employees for social media and the dealership. We just started a community site on a group level and really haven't implemented any guidelines to the employees yet. Do you guys have any advice or tips you can share and that way I can pass them on to my boss? Please let me know. Thanks for your help!

 

[Crystal Lewis]

Only the BDC and Internet Dept has password access to our sites, it's just too much to have 50 different people logging in all the time, plus we really don't encourage the sales people to facebook and twitter at work. Someone's got to have accountability. Let me know if you find something better though!

 

[Jerry Thibeau]

Every salesperson and service advisor should have an account on facebook. Please be aware there are potential negative ramifications to the dealership by doing so. If an employee leaves the dealership, they could potentially take a lot of your customers to a competitor. You’ll also need to control what’s allowed and not allowed to be posted on ones individual page. I am going to strongly suggest your dealership develop a facebook policy to protect your dealership. You’ll probably want to have your corporate attorney draft a legal binding agreement that is signed by your staff.
It would be best if the dealership set up and controlled passwords for all employee facebook accounts. This way if an employee was terminated, the dealership would maintain the rights to that personal account. If an employee already has a personal account, I would suggest keeping that account separate from the work account. Facebook allows one account per e-mail address, so make sure the accounts you create are tied to individual corporate e-mail addresses controlled by the dealership.

 

[Advantix Marketing]

There is also the option of using a professional Online Reputation Management firm. There are several, yes...my company included, that offer professional level management and control over all of your social media outlets. Not only can the Social Media sites be monitored for negative content, but the ORM firm can keep the content "on track", professional and engaging to the customer. When negative content IS posted, Social Media sites offer the ability to address and rectify the issue in full view of the public. This is VERY useful insight to the dealerships ability and willingness to resolve customer complaints.

Fees for this service are generally VERY reasonable, and the services extend FAR beyond Social Media.

 

[Dominic Belfiori]

I would have to agree with both Jerry and Scott on this one. Depending on how involved you would like to be in social media you could either just do it through your dealership going the route of what Jerry said with controlled passwords and postings. Or you could go the way Scott said and go through an Online Reputation Management firm. There are plenty of services out their like Cuneo and Advantix that offer these services, including dedicated personnel to manage your social media, as well as being able to provide a much more complex social strategy. Like i said though, it's really dependent on how involved you want to be with social media.

 

[dmeautomotive_SM]

Rick:
In attempt to answer your initial question about guidelines, you can find the guidelines we use at Abstrakt's marketing blog. Abstrakt also has a blog about encouraging employees to use Facebook...you should check it out...helpful tips. They currently do social media work with a car dealership who actively engages on Facebook and has successful participation by employees.

There are other guideline resources available at Altimeter.

Best of luck!
Missy
Direct marketing for the auto industry – DMEautomotive

 

[Joe-Turner]

Rick,

Every dealership / dealer group needs to have a policy about the use of social media sites for their employees, especially if they are connected to your dealership's sites. Anything they do on their sites could reflect on your store's sites and therefore is fair game to be regulated. There are several sites that offer a guidelines and you guys at Beaman have great legal counsel but try this for starters:

Online Database of Social Media Policies

Good luck call me if you need anything

Joe Turner
iMagicLab